Forever Claimed

“She’s awake,” said a deep voice.

Then she heard a rustle and smelled the odor of human come closer.

“Can you open your eyes?” a woman’s gentle voice asked.

“Stand back,” said the same deep voice. “We don’t know what she is or how she’ll react.”

That gave Dani her opening. If they were wary of her, she might be able to take advantage of it.

Instantly she sprang up into a crouch and snarled, her gaze moving from one to the other. Even as she did it, she knew how pathetic she must look, like a puppy pretending to be a full-grown wolf. But maybe it would be enough.

“It’s all right,” the familiar woman’s voice said.

Dani glanced at her, taking in a tiny, dark-haired beauty wearing a sapphire cocktail dress. Her expression was kind. The other woman regarded her with consternation from eyes surrounded in entirely too much makeup.

Then there were the men. In an instant she knew they were the vampires. One wore neatly tailored black and stood leaning against a desk. The other was seated and also wore black, though he looked a bit more disheveled. And like too many vampires, they were handsome, almost as if their change transformed them into objects of dark beauty.

“We rescued you,” said the blond vampire, his voice slightly accented. “I found you in the park and brought you here.”

Dani gave him another snarl. Like she was going to believe a bloodsucker?

For long seconds, no one moved. Then the elegant man with the dark hair said, “You can leave if you’d like. I’ll show you the door.”

She doubted that and didn’t move. Besides, she hurt all over and wasn’t yet sure how far she could walk. Her clothes were torn and covered in blood. She wouldn’t make it far before the police stopped her, and then she’d have to make up some lie about what had happened because normals absolutely didn’t believe in vampires, and she didn’t want to get committed.

“It’s all right,” the woman in blue said again, her voice remaining gentle. She moved closer and Dani smelled vampire all over her, but also the scent of human. She might be in league with the bloodsuckers, but she was still a normal.

The woman edged onto the couch beside her, moving slowly.

“Terri,” said the dark vampire warningly.

“It’s all right, Jude. She’s frightened. After the way she was attacked, how could she be anything else?”

The woman called Terri smiled at her. “I’m Terri, and I’m a doctor. I’m both amazed and thankful at the way you healed. We thought we couldn’t save you.”

Dani didn’t answer, choosing to reveal nothing.

“I’ll give you something to wear so you can leave. I’m afraid my clothes might be a bit small on you, but at least they’ll cover you so you don’t have to answer questions.”

Fear immediately spiked Dani. How could this woman know she didn’t want to answer questions? Then the answer came to her: she had healed too fast from nearly fatal injuries. Of course they knew she might have something to hide.

Uneasier than ever, she edged away and adjusted her crouch, ready to spring if necessary. One hand felt for and found her necklace, the crystal wolf’s head that hung by a leather thong around her neck. It was all she had left of her old life, and her heart squeezed with relief when she realized she still had it. It had been her last gift from her mother, and she would probably never receive another. She drew a steadying breath and refocused on her enemies.

Then the blond vampire with the faint accent spoke. “My advice would be to remain here until just before dawn. There are rogues on the streets, the ones who attacked you. You don’t want to encounter them again.”

Dani finally spoke. “How do I know it wasn’t you, vampire? You and your friend?”

Instantly she wished she could recall the words. She had just revealed too much, that she could tell they were bloodsuckers, and in so doing had made herself a threat to them.

“Très intéressant,” said the blond one, revealing the source of his accent. “She knows what we are. So she must be able to smell us.”

“I can smell you, all right,” Dani said forcefully, hoping to hold them at bay with a show of strength, however false. “Your stench fills the room.”

“So you know what we are. Perhaps you can tell us what you are.”

“I’m a human,” Dani said, catching herself just before she revealed more by saying she was a normal. “Can’t you smell it, bloodsucker?”

He shrugged and turned his head away from her, as if losing interest. That offended her, that he considered her such a small threat he could ignore her. Even if it was true.

The woman, Terri, reached out and touched her gently on the arm. Dani pulled back.

“Let me explain some things,” Terri said. “That man over there? That’s Jude, and he’s my husband. Whatever you may think about vampires, he doesn’t condone what happened to you, and now I’ll have to endure the anxiety while he sets out to hunt those who hurt you.”

Almost in spite of herself, Dani looked at her. “What are you talking about?”

“Jude,” said the other woman, “is a bit of an avenger. He usually deals with demons, but now I’m quite sure he’s going to look for the rogues who attacked you.”

“Chloe,” the dark one called Jude said in a warning tone.

“Well, it’s true, boss. Besides, you’re not going to be able to avoid looking for them, not with the news that St. Just brought us.”

Jude frowned at her, but said nothing.

The blond one suddenly rose and in an instant was bent over, his face inches from hers. His black-as-ebony gaze was mesmerizing, and the only way she could fight it was to pull back as far as possible.

“She’s human,” he said, “but not quite. I don’t care what you are, ma cocotte, but I know what you were used for. You were attacked on purpose. You are a declaration of war against Jude and any other vampire who forswears harm to humans. It was simply your misfortune to be there when they decided to make the declaration. But I will tell you this, they are still out there, still hunting to create more mayhem. Since you healed, you can now attract them once again. Especially since you reek of blood.”

Her heart skittered, and she found herself wondering what to believe.

“Stay here until dawn. Then go home and stay there, because the attack on you is a mere taste of what these rogues intend to inflict on this entire city.”

“Why should I believe you?”

He shrugged and drew away. “I don’t care what you believe. I don’t even care what you do. I did what I needed to, I brought you to Jude to prove these rogues have arrived. Beyond that…” He shrugged.

He seemed about ready to walk out the door, then he settled in the chair once again, looking angry and despairing all at once.

Dani had to drag her gaze away, appalled that she found him so magnetic. A bloodsucker magnetic? Every fiber of her being rebelled. It came as a relief when she looked at the one called Jude and realized she didn’t feel the same pull toward him. So she wasn’t utterly lost.

“How about some introductions,” Jude said. “I’m Jude Messenger, and you’re in my office. Terri already told you she’s my wife. This other lady is Chloe, my assistant. And that’s Luc St. Just, the one who brought you here and came to tell me the rogues are on the march. And you are?”

She hesitated, then decided to see where this led. They had already told her she could leave. Did they really mean it?

“Dani Makar,” she said.

“Nice to meet you, Dani Makar,” Jude said. The two women echoed him. Luc, on the other hand, seemed to have sunk into a dark mood. He made no acknowledgment at all.

“Luc was right,” Chloe said. “Much as I hate to admit it.” She shot daggers his way, but Luc appeared oblivious. “You’re safer going home at dawn. If vampires are going to fight, mere mortals don’t want to be in the way.”

“But why should they fight?” Dani asked. Something was askew here and she wanted to understand it. Having been attacked once, she needed to know enough to protect herself. “You’re all the same.”

At that, Jude laughed. A genuine laugh. “That’s about as true of us as it is of mortals. Some of us don’t believe in harming humans. Others of us would rather not control our impulses.”

Chloe spoke again. “About seven years ago, Jude drove a group of vampires out of town because they, um …” She hesitated.

“Overindulged?” Jude suggested with heavy sarcasm.

“I guess you could call it that. And from what Luc tells us, they’ve come back for vengeance. They may even want to start a war between Jude’s kind of vampire and the ones who just take whatever they want.”

“But why should you care what you do to humans?”

At that moment Luc rejoined the conversation. “It’s simple. Life is ever so much easier for us if no one believes we exist. And the only way to ensure that is never to take what we want unless it is offered freely.”

This was an entirely new view of vampires, and Dani was reluctant to swallow it whole. “So you wouldn’t have attacked me the way they did?”

“Not I,” said Jude, firmly.

“Nor I,” said Luc, his black eyes burning. “Not unless you wanted it.”

“Why would anyone want that?”

“You’d be surprised what some people want,” Luc said flatly. Then he stood so quickly Dani hardly saw him move.

“Jude, I must dine.”

At once Jude straightened and led him toward the door on the wall near the couch. He punched in a code quickly on a keypad, then swiped a card. Only then did he push the door open. The two vampires disappeared inside, leaving the three women alone.

“Dine?” Dani repeated.

No one answered her. Not a soul.

Fear shuddered through her again. Her voice smaller than she would have liked, she finally said, “I’ll take those clothes.”

She needed to get away. Now.

Chapter 2

Jude pulled a bag of blood out of the refrigerator in his office and passed it to Luc. He also put out a glass in case Luc didn’t want to drink from the bag.

Luc looked at the glass, remembering the times he had drunk blood from fine crystal goblets. Times spent with Natasha.

“What’s the story?” Jude asked.

“I told you.”

“No, I meant with you. Vengeance didn’t help you?”

“It rid me of the anger.”

“But not the rest of it.” Jude settled on a chair behind his desk, facing Luc across it. Luc finally seated himself and bit the bag open. He hesitated, then decided not to use a glass, not to remind himself of Natasha through such a simple thing. He drained the bag flat in seconds, then passed it back to Jude, who tossed it into a biohazard container.

They faced each other across the desk, Jude clearly waiting, Luc reluctant to speak. Yet he couldn’t blame Jude for his curiosity. Few enough vampires emerged on the other side of claiming, and he must certainly have been curious about it.

“The world is still bleak,” he said finally. “I may ask you for mercy.”

Jude lifted one brow. “I hope you don’t.” “It would be your obligation.” It was one obligation all vampires respected: if one of their kind could take this life no longer, a request for mercy—death—was always honored.

“Don’t ask it of me,” Jude said. “I need you.”

“For this fight?” Luc sounded almost scornful. “I don’t care anymore, Jude. I gave you the warning because I felt I owed it to you. If vampires want to destroy each other, why should I care?”

“You used to care. And maybe your problem right now is that you’re not allowing yourself to care about anything. You’re wallowing, Luc.”

The rage that flashed through Luc just then almost made him leap across the desk and attack Jude. He gripped the arms of his chair until his fingers buried themselves in the leather and then the padding beneath. “How would you know what I am going through?” The words emerged from between his clenched teeth.

“You’re right, I don’t know,” Jude replied calmly. “But I know what you used to be. What I see before me now is a man who won’t let go.”

“I can’t let go.”

“Perhaps not.” Jude sighed. “If you want to die, at least die doing something important. Don’t make it pointless by asking me to break your neck.”

The tension between them nearly made the air sizzle. But then Luc released his anger, acknowledging that it was misdirected. Jude wasn’t his problem. An interrupted claiming was his problem. Weariness was his problem.

“I’ll think about it.”

“Thank you.” Jude leaned forward and drummed his fingers on the desktop. “I should probably just take Terri and run. If there’s going to be a bloodbath, she’s my first concern.”

“It would be the wise thing, but I’ve noted you often avoid the easiest course.”

Jude flashed a brief smile. “It looks that way.”

Luc shook his head. “Oh, you always have a reason for what you do, mon ami. Battling demons, fighting your own kind. Most would call that insane.”

“I call it necessary.”

“Which is exactly why you won’t flee.” Luc released his grip on the chair arms and crossed his legs. “And you have a problem now in your office.”

“When do I not?”

One corner of Luc’s mouth twitched upward. “True. But this one is intriguing. She can’t be human.”

“Not fully, in any event. That much is clear.”

“We—or you, actually—must now concern ourselves with whether she might be an additional threat. She smells human, however, or I would not have brought her here.”

“I agree about her aroma. She certainly doesn’t smell like anything else I’ve ever met.” He drummed his fingers again briefly. “Well, she’s certainly not in league with the rogues. I doubt even someone who heals as swiftly as she does would have volunteered to be treated like that.”

“I agree. So now let us go learn what we can.”

The blood he had drunk had energized him, cold and nearly lifeless as it was. Things didn’t look quite as bleak as they had when he’d arrived here hungry. But they were still bleak.

Natasha’s death had left a gaping hole in his heart, his mind, his life, and he was sure he would never be able to fill it.

But for now, he decided, perhaps Jude was right. If he was going to choose death, he might as well die fighting. The idea better suited his nature. Maybe that was why he had hesitated to take the final step for so long: the notion of leaving quietly just didn’t fit him. A death in battle … well, there was something to be said for that.

Dani had showered and changed into a pair of too-tight, too-short jeans and a baggy sweatshirt that Chloe and Terri had managed to find for her. She still huddled in a corner of the couch but no longer looked ready to spring.

And she smelled better. Luc appreciated the fact that he didn’t have to keep fighting the allure of her blood. As a human morsel she enticed him amply. He had needed to feed not only because he had been hungry, but because when he was hungry, resisting temptation became harder.

Now that she was cleaned up, he could see she was pretty. Her eyes had an unusual blue-gray color that reminded him of something he couldn’t quite put his finger on. Her hair, wet and straight to her shoulders, showed premature streaks of white and gray amidst the dark curtain. Around her neck on a leather thong was an unusual crystal wolf’s head that caught and splintered light.

A curious, unusual human to be sure. If human she was.

Luc looked at Jude, who nodded. So he began.

“I saved you,” Luc said. “I took you from the park. I found you near death, and while I was preparing to take you from there, one of the rogues who attacked you arrived to finish you off. I gutted him, Dani Makar. I gutted him and broke his neck, then carried you away.”

Horror and satisfaction warred on her face. Horror, no doubt, at his description of the kill, but satisfaction from knowing one of her attackers had met such a fate. She scowled. “You didn’t save me for my sake.”

“No,” Luc agreed. “I brought you here for the sake of my friend, Jude. You were proof of what I had to say.”

“So why should I care?”

“Because you’re still alive.”

Her frown deepened, but she moved uneasily. He leaned toward her, lowering his voice to that hypnotic tone that usually got vampires what they wanted. He fixed her with his gaze, holding her in thrall.

“What are you, Dani Makar?”

She didn’t respond. Some mortals were immune to being vamped, although not very many, but he was disappointed anyway. They needed to know, and she was refusing to tell. He did note, however, that she didn’t quite seem able to break from his gaze. At least he had that advantage.

Then he noticed something else, something that unsettled him to his very core: her gaze was holding him as much as his was holding hers. It was calling to him almost as strongly as her blood. He wanted her in every way possible.

“Merde!” he swore and tore himself away.

Chloe’s sarcastic voice filled the room. “Another fail for the great St. Just.”

“Chloe,” Jude said sharply. “We have enough on our plates. Don’t give Luc a hard time.”

“At least not until you tell me I can,” she said too sweetly. “Or until the next time he interferes with my life.”

Luc barely spared her a glance. He was more focused on Jude, who had to make the next attempt. He noticed that Terri began to look uneasy herself, as if finally realizing that Dani might mean more trouble.

Jude spoke. He didn’t even attempt to vamp Dani. “Okay. You don’t want to tell us anything. But right now we’re wondering if you’re in league with the folks who want to start this war, because if there’s one thing we all know for certain, it’s that you’re not purely human.”

Luc switched his gaze back to Dani. She was looking at Jude now, so their gazes didn’t lock. She bit her lip, clearly hesitating.

“I don’t want to start, or even help in, a war among you bloodsuckers,” she said finally, an edge in her voice. “I wouldn’t mind if you were all dead. I want nothing to do with your kind. But I won’t do a single thing that would harm a human. Not one.”

“I feel enlightened,” Luc said sarcastically. “While I understand your animus toward us, given what those rogues did, you still haven’t answered the question. Are you a threat?”

“Not that I can do anything about it,” Dani said fiercely, “but I am your mortal enemy.”

She might as well have dropped a bomb in the room, she thought with satisfaction. Everyone stood perfectly still and regarded her with concern.

“Well,” said Chloe, breaking the silence finally, “I feel ever so much better. Since I’m human, I guess I can just take a hike now.”

“But you won’t,” Terri said. A frown creased her brow. “You would harm my husband?”

“If I could,” Dani said. “Husband? He holds you in thrall. You’re a slave to him.”

“No, I am not. He can’t vamp me at all. And you don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Jude touched her arm. “Easy, my love. She can’t and won’t hurt me. As long as she’s not going to join the rogues, I don’t care what she does.”

Terri looked at him. “But we don’t even know what she is.”

“Dani Makar,” Luc said with quiet significance.

Ice water trickled down Dani’s spine, depriving her of any satisfaction she might have felt at making her opinion of vampires known.

Reluctantly, she looked at him.

“I know who you are.”

He couldn’t possibly know. Her heart began to gallop and her mouth turned dry. Even her family couldn’t identify her as anything except a normal.

“Who?” Jude asked.

“I heard of them when I was up north. Makar. You’re a member of the Makari pack, aren’t you?”

His eyes bored into her. They were golden now, no longer black, but they still seemed to pin her and cleave her tongue. Deprived of speech, she could only stare.

“So, ma belle,” he said with soft satisfaction, “why haven’t you shifted shape? Are two of us too much?”

Her heart plummeted and her throat closed. Terror and hatred warred in her. Surely they would kill her now.

“But she doesn’t smell like a lycanthrope,” Jude said.

“Oh. My. God.” Chloe groaned. “A werewolf? Here?”

Luc never took his gaze from her. “She’s not a lycanthrope,” he said. “If she were, she’d have shifted to protect herself from us. They never meet our kind in any other form.”

He started smiling, and Dani wished she could spring at him like her family would and separate his head from his body. She did not like that smile at all.

“Poor, broken little wolf,” he said. “You can’t change. Did they exile you?”

Oh, how she loathed him then. But however she felt, she retained enough sense to know that springing at a vampire would only cost her, probably her life. She glared at him. “They’re not like that.”

He shrugged. “I really don’t care. What I care about is that the mystery is solved. Now I have another question. Are you going to send for your pack? Because if you do, given the gathering of vampires that is happening right now, your pack may meet more death than success. I really wouldn’t mind it, you know. The four of us can leave town.”

Dani swallowed hard, torn. If this war they had talked about really was about to happen, she certainly didn’t want her pack involved. Indeed, her mother would probably shrug and say to let the vampires kill each other. On the other hand, if she didn’t threaten these bloodsuckers with her pack, what might they do to her?

“If you let me go,” she said finally, “I don’t want to involve them.”

Jude spoke. “I already told you that you could go. I don’t keep prisoners.” He waved to the door.

“But,” said Luc softly, “it still might be wiser to wait for dawn, little wolf. Those with fewer scruples than Jude are amassing.”

“Why should you care?” she demanded, struggling toward anger to banish her fear and something approaching despair. “Your kind loathes mine. You hunt us like animals.”

“I thought it was the other way around,” Luc said, a faint amusement in his voice. “Your kind would like to see ours exterminated. From my perspective, I have no interest in lycanthropes. They make terrible food, and if they don’t attack me, then I care nothing at all one way or the other.”

She didn’t believe him. She’d grown up with warnings about bloodsuckers. “We don’t hurt humans,” she said. “You do.”

“Some of us do,” Jude said. “Which is the precise reason we’re evidently about to go to war.”

“Jude protects humans,” Terri said, unable to conceal her anger. “Do you?”

Dani couldn’t answer. By and large, the packs preferred to live alone and be left alone, much like ordinary wolves. They avoided mingling with humans, and they loathed vampires because they attacked humans, which no pack would do because they were human—at least part of the time. A pack killed wild game only to eat, and otherwise only in self-defense. Vampires killed for pleasure. But no, they didn’t protect anything or anyone except themselves. Something like shame niggled at her, making her so uncomfortable that her anger revived.

“Why,” she repeated, “do you care what happens to me?”

“Because,” said Luc, “I have no quarrel with you. Unless you want to start one.”

Outside in the night, sirens began to whoop. Almost at the same time, a phone tweeted.

“That’s me,” Terri said. “I guess I need to go to work.” She rose and went to get a cell phone from the desk.

“It’s your night off,” Jude protested.

“If they need me, it’s because it’s more than the on-duty medical examiner can handle,” she replied, then touched her phone and answered.

“It’s begun,” Luc said. “It’s begun.”

Jude straightened. “I’m going with her to watch over her. Chloe, you stay here no matter what. I don’t want you exposed. Luc, keep an eye on both of them.”

Terri disappeared into the inner sanctum and returned in a few minutes clad in jeans and a jacket. “It’s going to be a long night,” she remarked as she headed for the door. Jude disappeared with her.